Bumper grain crops harvested in Montana

GREAT FALLS – Bumper grain crops have been harvested by many farmers in the Golden Triangle, Montana’s premier wheat area, but their counterparts to the north and east face some uncertainty because of cool, wet weather.

Roughly 95 percent of the state’s winter wheat is harvested, with some farmers reporting abundant yields for the first time in years.

From Cut Bank to the North Dakota border, however, spring wheat and barley crops that were already in the bin at this time last year are standing in fields, many still green.

“The crop has so much potential and it looks pretty bleak that they’re going to get it all off,” said Dan Treinen, a grain merchandiser for Columbia Grain, which has 19 elevator facilities in Montana.

“The quality, by the time it does come in, is going to be suspect.”

In the Cut Bank, Fairfield, Conrad and Valier areas, some eager farmers swathed irrigated malt barley in late August, then watched it sprout in the field when rain hit, said Dave Henderson, a Cut Bank farmer and member of the Montana Grain Growers Association board.

Sprout damage renders barley worthless for malt houses, which need to sprout it during the malting process.

The damaged grain will be sold as feed, halving the price from $3 a bushel to $1.50, Henderson said.

The majority of barley growers held off the harvest until after the rain. They scrambled to bring it in during a warm, dry spell late last week.

“The custom cutters have just hit town and they’re running hard,” Henderson said.